Do the planets in our solar system ever line up completely,..?

Question

i always wanted to know if the planets in our solar system actually line up completely like you see in the fantasy movies,..and if so when was the last time and when will it happen again,..

Answer 1

yes they do line up and the last time lined up was the ages of the dinosaurs unfortunately you will not be able to see them because it will take another billion to do so!

Answer 2

no they dont, would be very interesting tho

Answer 3

2012 i heard

Answer 4

The problem is Pluto with an orbit of 240 years. To get all the other planets even near to line up would take 1000's of years

Answer 5

You can go here and see the real-time alignment of the planets:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/solar/solar.html

All of them in a straight line is a very, very rare event, and only lasts for a few hours (because Mercury moves so fast, going all the way around the sun in 88 days).

Answer 6

No--It's mathematically impossible.  Even if you consider all the planets to lie on more ore less the same plane, in order for 3 or more planets to align, their orbital periods have to have a mathematical relationship that's called "comensurate"; and the solar system's planets don't have comenusurate periods.

In order for even THREE planets to line up (or even to repeat any configuration exactly), they would have to have periods X, Y and Z such that the number "(Z-Y)X/((Y-X)Z)" is a rational number.  That isn't the case with any 3 planets in our solar system.

To get FOUR planets to line up, the restrictions are even greater; and of course the restrictions increase as you add more planets

Answer 7

There was an alignment of sorts in the early 80s and another one in 2000  and all sorts of apocalyptic events were predicted. But an absolutely true alignment is impossible as quite a few planets have tilted orbits - but the planets do line up in a rough line from time to time.

Answer 8

http://www.etsu.edu/physics/etsuobs/star...